The thing is, it is not the bitter taste I do not like. It doesn’t feel bitter or tangy to me. It is even sweet I would say. But smells like skunk 
. Bitter is fine.
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I have never heard of anyone just eating a plate of arugula. I think it’s like garlic. I don’t eat garlic like an apple, but I like it in my food. That’s how I feel about arugula. And all those vitamins and minerals don’t hurt at my age either. I put it in beans, rice, pasta, etc. When we went to Italy, they put it on top of an order of pasta-mix it in if you wish.
John S
PDX OR
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Sometimes a person’s tastes change, too. Time was I just did not care at all for cilantro (the soap taste thing) but now I’ve come to appreciate it.
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Letuce + Arugula + Honey + Balsamic Vinager + nuts = fantastic 
Sometimes its just a question of mixing it with the right ingredients!
Give it a go…
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Real grateful for it. Easy to grow. Cold hardy. Productive. Gourmet vibe. Jazzes up a salad.
Looks like I won’t be going to the grocery store much for the next couple of months, so now I’m extra grateful.
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I will never plant arugula again. Arugula is extremely invasive. I planted a few in my garden and am constantly pulling out arugula plants all over my garden. And, once they have reached a certain size, they have deep tap roots like dandelions.
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One mans trash is another mans treasure
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It is bi-annual?
You are probably talking about perennial arugula, which I have on my property. It is competitive enough to be a bit of an invasive. It’s stronger than the stuff the writer is complaining about, which bolts quickly and isn’t worth growing by my estimate.
When we have Italian visitors they often become very excited about our “real” arugula.
I just sniffed a young leaf of the milder form- Martha Stuart’s arugula I have growing in my window (OK, I don’t always stick to my own rules), and I can see how someone might find the peppery smell skunk like, but I don’t find it to be at all unpleasant- and I hate the genuine smell of skunks. However, we live in a relatively sanitized culture so Americans may be unused to such strong odors.
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May be I got a different kind - I am keeping it for now to see if it gets better with age.
it probably won’t, but there is still a possibility you’d acquire some taste-tolerance to it that you could actually eat it without gagging. Familiarity may not always breed contempt. In my old age, i still find it not exactly palatable, but can eat it with no issues. Even eat lots of it.
if i were a toddler to 4 yrs of age, i probably would find it traumatic an experience, and will probably hold a personal grudge against my parents for putting it in my mouth 
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My daughter and myself dislike the soap taste of cilantro.
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Don’t know and don’t care. I hate it.
Enjoy cooked greens…especially mustard. Curly leaf, Florida broadleaf, wild black mustard, upland cress, water cress…enjoy the bitter taste. Much prefer to spinach.
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I like some of that kind of bitter too, although I’d like a better word for it. I like the pungent taste, bitter stuff is think as tasting like poison.
Along with my more pungent arugala, this season I’ve enjoyed the less pungent, quick bolting variety most Americans are familiar with. While it did bolt not long after planting it, I was happily surprised to find out a couple weeks ago that it had reseeded itself, so it’s much appreciated because I failed to get around to planting fall lettuce. I don’t know why my early lettuce didn’t do me the same favor. Additionally, in this cool weather I expect it to take longer to bolt and will probably be useful until the first hard freeze, which my come any time now.
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@alan Was thinking of planting some of the wild perennial arugula you said you have. I’ve never tried it, what does it taste like? Is it something that would go well on a sandwich?
It is the arugala that is mostly what is grown in Italy and it is stronger tasting than the stuff most Americans grow. If you like some sharp mustard in a sandwich you’d probably have room in your palate for some leaves in the same sandwich. I don’t eat many sandwiches and for some reason, my wife doesn’t like salad much but Arugala can also be added to stews and soups for some snap and a very high source of vitamins.
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There are two kinds of arugula, the white-flowered and yellow-flowered ones. I haven’t experienced this with either. The yellow-flowered ones can taste very different depending on the environment they are grown in, having no spice indoors but being spicy when grown in full sun.
I only grow the white flowered Eruca arugula now. The yellow ones are not cold hardy in my area and do poorly in ground.
Yes just like most other brassicas.
On my property the regular arugula is more successful (this winter most of the self-sown seem to have perished). They tend to be growing in and near woodchips. A few years ago I sowed several varieties of each kind. All the perennial arugula got decimated by flea beetles, bolted, and never came back.